Canucks sign 2017 2nd round pick Kole Lind to Entry Level Contract

The Canucks have locked up promising prospect Kole Lind to an entry-level deal this morning. The full press release can be found below:

The signing of Lind after the NHL trading deadline is not surprising as it allows the organization to have the deal start in 2018-19 and thus not burn a year of the contract for this year. Given Lind’s age, if he had signed the deal between January 1st and February 26th, then it would’ve automatically burned a year of his contract due to already being 19 years old.

This is why Gadjovich was signed last year, to avoid that similar issue and allow the Canucks to have the contract slide.

Despite some injuries, Kole Lind has had a very good season with Kelowna. He has been a leader of their offence in every game that he has appeared in and is tireless in his work ethic. Don’t want to talk too much about his season as his prospect ranking page is still coming.

Since he turns 20 prior to the end of 2018, Lind can (and likely) will be assigned to the Utica Comets next season to begin his professional career.

The organization felt that Lind was a first round talent and was ecstatic to get him with the 33rd overall pick.

You do know that i was being sarcastic, dont you?
I think Benning is showing that he knows when and when not too sign players, ie Gadjovich and now Lind. This guy is not nearly as dumb as he sounds and i believe he actually has a plan, just doesnt think it is the medias business.
He said get younger and faster and has been doing that. It doesnt happen in one season.

They have 48 players under contract for this season. Lind is not among them as he signed for next season. Of those 48, the contracts of Juolevi and Gadjovich are going to slide to begin next season, so effectively there are another 4 slots until the end of this season.

For next season there are 29 players under contract so far, including Lind. There are a number of free agents to extend or not. Some of those (Stewart MacKenzie and Anton Cederholm being perhaps the clearest examples) are not going to get extensions.

There is 2 spots left until July 1. We still need to sign Gaudette leaving 1 spot to sign free agents between now and July 1.

There are 2 dmen in the SHL that could be signed.
Multiple NCAA dmen that could be signed. One of which is a legit top 4 prospect.
Always lots of CHL over age players that could be signed.

This is why that trade was a disaster. If we got a 7th round pick we would then have the spots of Motte, Jokinen and Vanek to sign free agents. Some of those college kids will want to sign this season to burn a year of their deals which is only an option for 1 player.

This is the problem with the trade. How do people not understand cap and contract implications when deals are made.

Gaudette was a 5th round pick that originally belonged to NYR, which Gillis got by trading Raphael Diaz.

If Benning signed MDZ, called teams on Biega/Boucher/Archibald, traded Gudbranson, we could’ve enjoyed a few extra Dahlens and Gaudettes.

That said, I won’t whine about the past, but I will look towards the future. There are tons of young players now; Goldobin, Boucher, Virtanen, Motte, And Leipzig all need playing time or exposure to figure out if they’re impact NHL players, and I sure hope TG and Benning give themselves an opportunity to find out what they have.

First. Replace the word management with Ownership because we all know who’s really driving the bus. If it wasn’t JB it would be somebody else.

Second. Quit beating the dead horse. IF this and IF that, it doesn’t change anything now. We can’t change the past, but we can look forward to the future. Lind is an exciting prospect. He might pan out, he might not, but signing him to an ELC is great news. Don’t throw a wet blanket on it because you think this rebuild should have been done differently.

After seeing what Judd Brackett did in last years draft had fans excited for him too keep up his great run of picks, so you can see the argument of that. I cant believe that Bolig went for a 6th round pick, a guy who doesnt even play in the NHL and Vanek who had 41 points (yeah we know hes a defensive liability and floats alot) still baffles me we couldnt get a third or fourth lol….

29 other GM’s passed on Vanek last summer when they could have signed him in free agency. That says a lot about what most people in the NHL think about Vanek as a player. It’s not all that surprising the Canucks got what they did for him. They are lucky they got anything at all.

I think hell end up nicely in our bottom 6. Had the chance to see him live a few times, hope he can improve his foot speed and work on his strength and conditioning, he didnt win many board battles when i saw him but knowing hes only a 170ish with a 6″1 frame theres room to get stronger.

Im not sure the best way to go for him, IMO we need him to be C, and hes still ironing out some defensive deficiencies. I hope he doesnt join Van to play the wing, id let him stay in Utica, gain some strength and focus on the C position.